This technique would work with any clay after a bit of practice. The clay I have used here is one of my favourites for modelling with, its Earthstone Special 160 from Valentine Clays.

Fired to 1060c (Cone 04).

What you will need:

1. Clay
2. Paint brush or similar
3. OPTIONAL: Textured stamp

tools for making daffodil flower

Making the Petals

1. Take about this much clay and roll it into a ball:

Ball of clay for daffodil petals

2. Roll the clay to make a pointy sausage:

clay rolled to a pointy sausage

3.  Then flatten in the palm of your hand as in the image below:

flatten petal

4.  Then if using a textured use it to create the pattern by patting gently around the edges:

daffodil petal

Make 5.  Below shows using the texture and just using my palms:

daffodil petals clay

Making the Center

1. Grab another ball of clay about this size, slightly bigger than petal balls.

Center Daffodil Clay

2. Roll and flatten to make the shape below:

daffodil center

3.Using a paintbrush end or something similar use it to create the center by wiggling it:

daffodil center creation

4.Using the end of the paintbrush drag it out to create the lines below:

daff center sculpt

Putting together

1. Add 5 petals around the center.  You can overlap or do them aligned like mine below:

3 daffodil petals

5 daffodil petals

2. Make the stem by turning over and smoothing petals to create this shape and pocking something inside stem if daffodil is to be mounted on wire.

daffodil stem

3. Place on a cardboard tube while you create 6 little stamens by rolling clay and grouping together:

4.  Using something like a cocktail stick to push into center:

Set a side to dry.

dafodil Lady Ceramic Sculpture